Seeking the One My Soul Loves by Night

On her bed at night the woman cannot find the one her soul loves, so she gets up and searches the city streets. Watchmen find her. Soon afterward she finds the beloved, holds him, and brings him to her mother’s house.

This scene has a deliberate companion in 5:2–8. There too the woman is awake at night, the beloved becomes absent, she goes looking, and watchmen find her—but the later scene turns painful and violent. Reading the two together reveals narrative artistry that can be missed when chapters are isolated.